In Response to Graham Henderson of CRIA

[p2p rules]

Graham of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) recently went to Washington to speak about Canadian copyright laws. He had one particular comment that is worth responding to.

The story comes from the Toronto Star which shows Graham Henderson saying:

    “There is a certain set of bloggers out there who think music is nothing more than a hobby, that it should be free. But I think Canadians as a whole are more open to supporting their creative industry and so we’re finally at the point where Ottawa is going to act. I refuse to believe that this brand-new digital era is going to make beggars of creators and send them back to the 1800s.”

This particular comment made my blood boil. It’s as if there are a couple of bloggers who are saying this, but Canadians think otherwise and thinking along these lines is somehow old fashion.

I am a Canadian artist and I know for a fact that CRIA does not even come close to representing the interests of Canadian content creators. There is a good reason why the popular Canadian record labels left CRIA when the Liberals Bill C-60 came around. The attitudes expressed by CRIA makes me proud to not be associated with them because I do not believe that suing your own fan base is a step in the right direction nor do I believe disconnecting users, instituting internet wide filtering, or locking everything down in copy protection will even begin to help creators in such a fluid time.

Zeropaid